If you read blogs about bikes you likely saw how Seattle’s DOT installed a dozen and a half bike racks in a place nobody would lock a single bike, let alone dozens of bikes. SDOT did this, quite obviously, to block homeless people from camping in the location, as everyone figured out pretty quickly.

Condemnation from the bike community was swift, but it was circumstantial at best.

The urban bike community of the western world has struggled with its image as male, white, and affluent. Such is often not the case, but nothing reinforces this stereotype like some salaried tech industry bike bro complaining about the homeless camps he had to look at on his commute to work.

This weekend saw the launch of yet another Open Streets event modeled on the successes of similar car-free street events in cities like Bogotá, Portland, Los Angeles, and Detroit.

But what was slightly different this time was the size of the town involved. Owosso sits in the middle of Michigan agricultural land and has a population of just over 15,000 people.

Organized through the Owosso Main Street Promotions and Outreach Committee, Open Streets Owosso looked and felt just like any big city open streets event: streets blocked off from automobile traffic for people to enjoy the public commons on bike, on foot, on skateboard, anything human powered.

The best way to pick this eye-roller apart is to go through it line by line, condensed for brevity of course. Author’s original post appears in italics, my rebuttals in plain text.

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Model D: If you didn’t know otherwise, you’d be forgiven for mixing up two major Detroit bike rides: Slow Roll and Critical Mass. The former is ostensibly a leisurely pedal for all age groups through a different neighborhood every Monday. The latter is a monthly ride designed to snarl traffic and raise awareness of the need for better cycling infrastructure by deliberately clogging city streets and tying up intersections.

Rebel Metropolis: I doubt the author has ridden either in Detroit. Critical Mass had its roots in snarling traffic for political reasons (as though bikes weren’t also traffic), but in the D, Mass is also a leisurely ride, albeit at a crisper pace than Slow Roll. CM’s size here is vastly smaller than Slow Roll, too. So nobody is going to mistake a swift group of 300 with a snail crawling 6,000, especially in a city that’s 138 square miles of flat, open, over-capacity surface streets.

MD: The events of the Monday, June 6th Slow Roll began and ended in Hamtramck [a separately incorporated city within the boundaries of Detroit] and have left me, and many others with a bitter taste in my mouth. Slow Roll didn’t inform anyone with the city at any time before the event. The only warning for residents and officials came from a Facebook post a few hours before the ride, written by a Hamtramck resident who happened to find out about it.Continue reading →

“To the American slave, what is your 4th of July? A day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.”

Many years ago in film school, some comrades and I shot a short documentary asking that very question. Many strangers we interviewed cited the army, the troops, vague ideas about what freedoms they believed they enjoyed – it seemed as though the militarization of the everyday had perverted July 4th into just another day to bolster nationalist pride. Nevermind that America’s declaration of independence was made without armed aggression. Great Britain didn’t even find out for another month.

A cycling renaissance is taking place throughout North America and across the globe. One need only do a search on Instagram for ‘bikes’ or ‘fixie’ to find limitless images of young urbanites the world over connecting with one another while utilizing cycles as part of their daily social routine. Automobiles are on the decline, as cars are increasingly viewed as impractical modes of transport within the city. Light rail, bus, and bicycle mode shares are on the rise. These are encouraging trends for those concerned with the livable streets and the climate crisis. In what will hopefully become an ongoing series, I asked three women whom I respect and admire a great deal for their thoughts on this cultural shift: Janel Sternbetz currently traveling, replied from New Orleans, Joliene Adams based in Eldorado Springs, CO, and Jakkz Raines who lives in Oakland, CA.
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Joliene: Alive. Awesome. Capable of more. Driven by a belief in basic human kindness. Happiest when I’m on my bike. I’m compassionate, a bit scatter-brained. Aside from being vegan, I’m not a picky eater. I’m easily frustrated by laziness and apathy. I’ve a strong belief that use of one’s hands and providing radical self reliance are intrinsic forms of human intelligence.

Jakkz: I’m a cis queer-identified feminist animal/environment-loving cyclist who works in mental health. I love to explore the world by bicycle, make music, immerse myself in nature, whether urban, wooded, alpine, or oceanic. I’ve been called quirky, stubborn, and passionate a time or two.